Confusion
by Natascope
Summary: AU. During his sixth year, Harry gets Obliviated of what appears to be a fairly important week.


I do not own Harry Potter.

* * *

A/N: This is for Season V of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, round #13

Team & Position: Caerphilly Catapults, Beater 1.

Base Prompt: Each position has been assigned a chess piece and coordinating prompt for which they must write. The chess piece MUST be used somewhere in your story, as either an object or word.

Piece and Prompt: Pawn — Write about a character being manipulated.

Optional Prompts:

3\. (word) freedom

12\. (word) desire

* * *

" _Obliviate_."

* * *

Harry Potter woke in an all-too-familiar bed—the one in the Hogwarts infirmary. Perhaps he shouldn't have been able to tell before he had even opened his eyes, but he had spent enough time here, most of it unwillingly, to recognize the sounds and smells of the location. Quickly thinking back, he was unable to recall what he had done this time to end up in Madam Pomfrey's domain.

Taking another moment, Harry slowly opened his eyes, squinting a bit in the light of the room. As his eyes adjusted, he noticed a head of blond hair sitting on a chair near his bed. A quick donning of his glasses from the bedside table brought the person into focus. The sharper image of the blond-haired, blue-eyed girl clad in green-trimmed robes did nothing to alleviate his confusion; the sight only made it more pronounced.

"Who're you?" Harry asked.

The girl looked startled at Harry's abrupt question. "How are you feeling, Harry?"

"I'm fine. Now answer my question," Harry demanded.

"You don't recognize me?" the girl asked, looking crestfallen.

"If I did, would I really be asking you your name, snake?" Harry asked with a sneer.

The girl's eyes widened. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Harry huffed. "If you're not going to answer my question, can you at least go get Madam Pomfrey? I'm feeling fine and want to get out of here."

She lifted an eyebrow and stared at him. "While you may be feeling fine, you're clearly not, seeing as you don't seem to recognize me," the girl said imperiously.

"And that wouldn't be a problem if you would just tell me your name."

"Next you'll tell me that you don't know the name of your other classmates, like Sally-Anne Perks."

"The name doesn't ring a bell," Harry said.

The girl just stared at him for a moment. "Hufflepuff." Seeing Harry's lack of response, she continued, "Our year. She was the only one to leave Hogwarts after the dementors attacked that Quidditch game in our third year!" The girl was clearly frustrated, and her voice started getting louder as she progressed.

"Still doesn't ring a bell."

"Argh! Alright, I promise that if you tell me the last thing that you remember, I'll tell you my name."

"Or I can just yell out to get the attention of Madam Pomfrey," Harry countered. "Though you may have already been loud enough."

Both paused for a moment to see if the school nurse would investigate the raised voices. When it was clear that she was not on her way, the girl smirked. "That is always an option. However, you know that she'll fuss over you, and I'm willing to bet that you want to delay that until I'm not here," the girl replied.

Harry gritted his teeth, knowing that the Slytherin girl was correct. There was no chance he would risk Pomfrey's checkup while a Slytherin was in the room, not if there was something he could do to stop it. Giving it up as a lost cause, he ground out, "Hogsmeade."

"Oh dear," the girl said. "That was a week ago."

When it was evident that the girl wasn't going to say anything more, Harry glared at her while clearing his throat. She looked back at him sheepishly. "Sorry. My name's Greengrass. Daphne Greengrass. Please feel free to call me Daphne, Harry."

Now it was Harry's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Why is one of Malfoy's lackeys up here getting chummy with me?"

Daphne huffed. "I am not, nor have I ever been, one of 'Malfoy's lackeys.' I'll be nice and forgive you that one, Potter, seeing as you have lost the last week, but don't do it again."

"Ah, there's the 'Potter.' I had been wondering where that was," Harry said, rolling his eyes. "You're telling me that the Slytherins don't all walk around in a group and do what Malfoy says?" The girl frowned back at him. "Your silence is telling. You follow him around and do what he says—you're his lackey."

The girl let out a pained sigh. "You really don't remember this last week."

"That's what I said."

"Yes, but even so, I didn't truly believe it until now." Harry started to comment, but Daphne held up her hand. "I believe you, but hoped that you were not suffering from a complete memory loss of the last week. Your comments make it painfully clear that this is not true." Daphne's eyes began to shimmer. "Merlin, the last week's been hard enough, but finding out you don't remember me at all, that you don't know what I—what _we've_ been through…"

Harry watched Daphne bury her face in her hands, barely holding back the tears. With a sigh, he scooted back in the bed to lean against the headboard. "Alright," he said after getting comfortable, "I'll listen. What's happened the last week?"

Daphne sniffed and straightened in her seat, a look of hope on her face, the unshed tears still present in her eye. "Thank you, Harry." As she blinked, a single tear fell down her cheek. She quickly rubbed her eyes and wiped the tear away. "It all began about five days ago. I got a letter from my father stating that I was under a betrothal contract."

"Wait, what's that?" Harry asked.

"A betrothal contract is something used fairly frequently in the Wizarding World, especially among older families. They can be used as part of arranged marriages or simply to create a legally-binding intent to marry," Daphne explained.

"Ah. Thanks," Harry said.

"Anyway, this was a case of arranged marriage."

Harry looked at Daphne awkwardly. "I'm sorry?"

Daphne smiled gently. "Thanks, but it gets worse." She took a deep breath. "It turns out that my great-grandfather made a contract with another family to arrange a marriage for their kids. However, they both ended up only having sons. The contract was written such that it passed down the generations until such a time that both families had two marriageable children that were roughly the same age."

"What does this have to do with me?" Harry asked. Daphne looked at him without saying anything. After a moment, Harry groaned. "No! Merlin, dammit! Not another one!"

Daphne's eyes widened in shock. "Another one? You didn't mention any previous betrothal agreements before."

Harry wiped his hands down his face. "Not betrothal, no. There was another contract that was imposed on me against my will," Harry said. Seeing that Daphne was still confused, Harry continued, "The Triwizard Tournament."

"Oh, right," Daphne said. "Seeing as you don't remember, I apologize again for wearing one of those stupid badges."

"Thanks," Harry said without thinking, still too caught up in this new contract that was going to control his life, regardless of what he may desire.

Seeing that Harry was done talking for the moment, Daphne continued, "Anyway, I met up with you that evening when you ran into me. I think you had been following Malfoy or something." Harry nodded as this seemed likely. "I explained things to you and, well… you got a little upset."

"I have the feeling that you are underplaying my reaction, especially considering how I feel right now," Harry said.

Daphne smiled again. "After you calmed down, we talked things over. We agreed to meet up in the evenings to get to know each other in secret. Unfortunately, some of my housemates found out what was going on. I was able to trade in all of my favors to keep it from spreading, but it is only a matter of time before it spreads across the whole school. So, I've been fighting through my house politics, attempting to get to know Slytherin enemy number one, all while knowing that, at any moment, my housemates may turn on me."

"Sounds stressful."

"You have no idea," Daphne said. "I've had to avoid many of the other Slytherins, including Malfoy. I do have some friends helping run interference, but…"

"You want to ensure things with me have solidified before news spreads to the rest of Slytherin?" Harry asked.

"That's one way to put it, yes."

"Fate hates me," Harry muttered. Looking up with a hard look in his eyes, he asked, "So, what do you want to do?"

"For now, let's just keep getting to know each other on nights when you don't have Quidditch practice," Daphne said. "While we'll have to retread some relationship building, I'd rather marry someone I know and have grown to like than someone that is a complete stranger to me."

"That's it? We just meet and talk?" Harry asked.

"That's it," Daphne affirmed. "Let's just get to know each other." She glanced at her watch. "I need to go; I have an appointment with Tracey—one of my friends that is helping keep a lid on this—to work on homework. Assuming you're out of here tomorrow, I'll meet you in the regular place."

As Daphne stood to leave, Harry interrupted, "Where's that?"

A light blush crossed Daphne's cheeks. "Right. Sorry. One of the unused classrooms on the fifth floor. The one across from the portrait of a pawn alone on a chessboard."

Harry nodded. "Okay. I'll see you there after supper."

Daphne nodded and said, "Good night, Harry."

"Good night, Daphne."

Harry using her name caused a quick smile to flash across her face. She made her way to the infirmary doors and, with one last look and smile back, exited the ward.

* * *

"Did it work?" Tracey Davis asked after the infirmary door shut behind Daphne.

"Yes," Daphne said as the two started walking back to the Slytherin dormitories. "Although I am beginning to wonder if Potter is a bit touched in the head. He didn't really seem to question anything I said."

"How much had the Obliviation affected?"

"He seems to have lost the last week."

"So, betrothal agreement rather than a soul bond?" At Daphne's nod, Tracey asked incredulously, "And he just went along with that?"

"Yes. A bit odd, really. He didn't even ask to see a copy of the contract. He just took it at face value."

"What?"

"I know, he's clearly not a Slytherin."

"Well," Tracey said with a chuckle, "we knew that from our second year. No way was Harry Potter the Heir of Slytherin." As they reached the dungeon level, she continued, "At least this lays the groundwork for your freedom from Malfoy." Both girls gave over-the-top shudders, causing them both to laugh. "Your father can't complain if you can successfully bag the Boy-Who-Lived."

"Yes, I guess I should count my blessings. A chance with Potter is a much better choice than having an arranged marriage to Malfoy. I'd feel sorry for Astoria, but she actually likes the git."

* * *

"Did it work?" Harry asked the seemingly empty infirmary. Hermione stepped out from underneath his invisibility cloak.

"I think so," Hermione said. "She seemed to believe that you had no idea what was going on."

"She must think I'm a complete idiot," Harry groused. "Does she really expect me to believe that we have a betrothal contract passed down from our great-grandparents, or that I would just accept something like that without any proof?"

The question hung in the air for a moment, unanswered.

"Well, at least something went right. I'm sure she'll be able to provide some insight into what's going on with Malfoy," Harry said.

"I still wish you would have come up with a plan that didn't involve me Obliviating you of the last week," Hermione complained.

"Hermione, for this plan to work I needed to have my memory modified, and there is no one else I would trust to do it."

"Even with our arguments over the Half-Blood Prince's book?"

"Obviously," Harry said. He quickly changed the subject. "How did you arrange for Greengrass to be here, with her knowing that I had been Obliviated?"

"The same way we learned that Greengrass was looking for a way out of a deal with Malfoy," Hermione replied. "Ron and I let Lavender and Parvati overhear us talking about your situation. Naturally, the whole school knew within minutes. Thankfully, no one knows who performed the spell, though everyone thinks it was Malfoy. As they can't prove it, Dumbledore gave a speech at supper about the dangers of Obliviation. I suspect there will be more in both Charms and Defense."

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about it, Harry. Tomorrow I'll bring up my notes from the last week for our shared classes. You should be able to catch up quickly."

"Thanks, Hermione. For everything."

The two sat in silence for a few moments before Harry asked, "Who's Sally-Anne Perks?"

A look of concern crossed Hermione's face. "I'll just go get Madam Pomfrey now," she said as she rushed off to find the school nurse.


End file.
